Judges in “Interceptor” Case Intercepted

BEIJING — On Sunday, the Beijing Youth Dailyreported that 10 “interceptors”—thugs hired by provincial governments to prevent petitioners from lodging complaints in Beijing—from Henan were jailed. A Beijing court has asked for a retraction after discovering that the judge responsible for overseeing the case disappeared before giving a ruling.

“We don’t know where he is,” said a source from the Ministry of Justice. “But we believe he might have been himself intercepted.”

Witnesses say that when the judge came to work, he was approached by two men who asked if he was responsible for the interceptor case. When the judge answered in the affirmative, he was thrown into an unmarked van.

“Understand that the Ministry of Justice takes this matter very seriously,” said the source. “We have sent police to scour every black jail in Beijing.”

Just then the source received a phone call and his face turned sour.

“I just got word that the police unit we sent was last seen getting into an unmarked van,” he sighed.